Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Friday Night Lights/Ted Lasso; Coach Taylor, Coach Lasso; g; 1,020 words
At the 67th Annual NCAA Coaches Convention, two coaches walk into a bar...

For Laura, who, when I suggested she write Coach Taylor meeting Coach Lasso, said, no you. And here we are. *g*

Thank you to her for looking it over as well. <333

Read it on AO3.

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Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Eric leaned against the smooth wood of the hotel bar and wished yet again that he'd talked Tami into coming with him after she'd talked him into attending at all.

It wasn't that Vince didn't deserve the recognition, and it was great to see him and Jess again—Eric and Tami didn't get back to Dillon much, and Vince was based in California now that he was playing for the Chargers. But Eric had tried coaching at the college level and hadn't found it particularly rewarding, even in his short stint at TMU, and he couldn't say that to any of these men who'd made it their lives' work.

Luckily, a glance around the bar told him no one was much interested in what he had to say anyway. He took a sip of his beer and decided that once he'd finished it, he'd head back to his room to FaceTime Tami. He'd promised her he'd try to be sociable, but she knew him well enough to know how that would actually go.

He gave the room another look and caught the eye of a pair of coaches sitting at a hightop table. Well, they were all coaches here, and all dressed in the business casual style of coaches everywhere: polo shirt or sweater with their university emblem embroidered over the left breast, and a pair of chinos. Eric's navy blue sweater was blank—no reason to call attention to himself as a high school coach—and the other coaches' were too.

He nodded in acknowledgement, and the coach with the mustache seemed to take it as a signal to talk, and waved him over to their table.

Eric bit back a sigh, picked up his beer, and went.

"Howdy, coach," the one with the mustache said. "I'm Coach Lasso and this is Coach Beard." Coach Beard nodded and tipped his pint in greeting.

Eric nodded back. "Coach Taylor." It struck him that Lasso looked familiar, but he chalked it up  to the fact that they were attending a conference made up of mostly middle-aged white guys who all had similar fashion sense.

"Vince Howard's high school coach," Lasso said with a big smile that lit up his whole face. "He must have been something to coach."

"You could say that," Eric replied. "He was a good kid. Just needed a push in the right direction." He'd said the same thing to every other coach who'd asked, and to the conference coordinating committee as well when they'd invited him to speak. It wasn't his place to tell anybody anything else and he wished they would stop asking.

"A few of your boys made it to the NFL, right?" Lasso continued. Beard nodded as if he was the one being asked, and Lasso went on, "Smash Williams. Tim Riggins. That other boy, what was his name? Coffey? Caffrey?"

"Cafferty. Luke Cafferty," Eric replied.

"Shame about his ACL."

"Yeah." Eric took a sip of his beer. It wasn't the tragedy Street had dealt with, but it was always sad to see a promising career cut short. "He's doing okay, though. Back in Dillon, running the family farm."

"Good that he had that to fall back on."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a few moments, and Eric suddenly remembered where he'd seen Lasso before, other than in the face of three-quarters of the conference attendees. Julie had shown him the video and dared him to do the dance the next time he won a game. When he'd laughingly agreed, she even tried to teach it to him, but he was hopeless. Gracie Belle had fun with it though, and Julie always enjoyed laughing at him, so he considered it time well spent despite his two left feet.

"You won with Wichita State a couple years back, right?"

"Yeah, uh huh. We surely did," Lasso replied. "They were a good bunch of kids."

"You still there?"

"Nah, we got recruited into the Premier League."

Eric mulled that over for a second, head tilting in curiosity as he made the connection. "Premier League? That's soccer, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Huh."

"Yeah."

"Truth be told, it was kind of a Major League situation," Lasso said, leaning in and lowering his voice. "But it all worked out in the end."

"Huh," Eric said again and took another long sip of beer.

"Yeah." Lasso smiled that big smile of his again, and on anyone else it would have looked creepy, but on him it just looked sincere. "It was a big change, but I'm glad we did it."

"I get that," Eric replied, thinking of the move to Philadelphia, and how he and Tami had both thrived there after a rough start. "Risky sometimes, but worth it."

Lasso tapped his nose and pointed at Eric. "Exactly. I'm not saying it wasn't terrifying. We didn't know the slightest thing about soccer at the time, but we learned. We're still learning. And any day we learn something is a good day."

Eric nodded again, amused that Lasso made even the most well-worn coaching platitudes sound genuine. He finished his beer and inclined his head in farewell. "Nice meeting you fellas, but I'm going to head up to my room. Get some sleep before my big speech tomorrow."

"Glad to meet you too, Coach," Lasso said, and Beard nodded and raised his glass in a salute. He handed over a card and Lasso said, "Don't be a stranger."

"I don't have a card," Eric said, "but I'll give you a call." He maybe even meant it when he said it.

Lasso laughed. "You do that."

"Might even watch a soccer game one of these days."

"They don't call it the beautiful game for nothing," Lasso replied. "You take care now."

"You, too." Eric glanced at Beard. "Both of you."

Eric was pleased with himself, because he could now honestly tell Tami he'd made an effort to socialize, and even potentially made a friend. He grinned to himself on the elevator ride back up to his room, already anticipating their nightly call and the bright smile she'd give him when he told her.

end

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Feedback is always welcome!

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